The Twin Swordsmen
by Bomberman1117
Summary: Kirito has a twin brother in SAO with him, but what happens when his brother goes of on a crusade to rid SAO of some of its... less appealing players. Work in progress title.
1. World of Swords

Chapter 1: World of Swords

"Ready?" Kazuto asked his twin brother.

"Ready when you are," replied Keigo (Not sure how it's actually pronounced but for this s tory it's pronounced Key-go).

They both placed their copies of Sword Art Online into their computers, and simultaneously said, "Link start!" and they were sent into the VRMMORPG.

Upon loading into the world, the former beta-testers immediately started running towards their favorite hunting spot; however, they were cut off by a red-haired man, who Keigo accidentally ran into. "Hey," the man said, "Uh," he continued, caught a little of guard by the two identical avatars in front of him, "are you glitching or something, because I'm seeing double," This was their favorite part of meeting people in video games, so much so that they had a prepared routine for when it happened. At the same time, they both looked to their right, and then their left, and then said in unison, "I don't know what you're talking about; I don't see anything,"

"Okaay," the man said, and then the twins looked at him and began to laugh, "Hahaha," Kazuto spoke "We're just screwing with you; we're twins, so whenever we play a game together we make our characters look the same. My name's Kirito, and this is my brother Kei. Nice to meet you," the last sentence the said in unison.

"I'm Klein, you two seem to know what you're doing, do you mind helping me out?" the man said.

"Sure, no problem," agreed Kirito, before Kei had the chance to say no to Klein's request.

The three spent the next several hours grinding wild boar. Although they were the equivalent of slime in other MMOs, Klein couldn't seem to get the hang of fighting them for a while. "Whelp," Klein eventually said, "I've got to go. I ordered a pizza and it should be at my house in a few minutes,"

"Finally, I thought you'd never leave," Kei mumbled under his breath. Kirito heard this remark and proceeded to elbow his brother in the ribs.

"Hey, guys," Klein said, breaking up the argument before it started, "Where's the logout button?"

"It should be under the menu," Kei responded, with a hit of annoyance in his voice.

"It's not there," Klein said.

"Ah, for the love of- here," Kei said, trying to reach over Klein's shoulder, "What the? It really isn't there," he checked his menu, and Kirito check his. All three were missing the logout button. Conveniently enough, bells started ringing and there was a mass teleport to the center of the town you start the game in.

The sky became filled with red hexagons, and a large figure in a red cloak appeared above everyone. "Hello," the figure said, "my name in Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Sword Art Online. Welcome to my world. Some of you have noticed a key item from your menus, the logout button, this is not an error in the game, this is the way Sword Art Online was intended to be played. There are three things I should mention: One, if you die in game a component in the nerve gear you are wearing will overheat and fry your brain, killing you instantly. Second, if anyone in the real world tries to remove or unplug the nerve gear, the same will happen. Finally, I have placed an item in all of your inventories,"

The sound of opening menus flooded the square, flowed by bright tubes of light encasing all of the players. When the light finally cleared, the twins looked at each other and realized what had happened, their avatars had been replaced by their real bodies.

"Kei… Kirito… What happened to you guys?" Klein asked, incredibly confused.

"It looks like that item used the scans from when you set up the nerve gear to make our in-game avatars look like our real bodies," said Kei, who pulled Kirito aside and told him, "Look, we can't stay here very long, all of the hunting spots are going to be taken soon, we need to go,"

"Fine, let's get going then," Kirito responded, and with that they began to run out of the town. As they were running they were stopped by Klein, "Hey, guys, what are you doing?" he said.

"We're leaving," Kirito said, "All the good hunting spots are going to be taken soon. If we can get to the next town before everyone else then we'll have more time to level up before everyone else gets there,"

"Okay then," Klein responded, "you guys seem like you work well together. So, I'm not going to bother asking if you wanted to join my friends and me,"

"Ya kinda just did," said Kei, who was, again, elbowed in the ribs by Kirito.

"We appreciate the offer," Kirito corrected his brother, "But, no offense, we can't have extra players dragging us down. We've always been able to handle the two of us, and I'm sure we could fit you in our group to, but any more than that and it's just too much dead weight. Sorry,"

"No, I see how it is," Klein said, disappointed, "See ya around I guess," and with that Klein left.


	2. The Boss Room

Chapter 2: The Boss Room

"Hello everyone, my name is Diabel," a blue haired man said to a group that contained both Kirito and Kei, "Thank you all for coming. I have good news, yesterday, on a dungeon raid, we found the boss room," when he said this, whatever chatter in the crowd silenced.

"Hey!" shouted a voice from behind the group. The brothers turned around and saw a man with spiked hair. Both Kei and Kirito's first reactions were, 'How did he fit that hair in the nerve gear?' immediately followed by, 'Oh shit, he's pissed at someone here,' and they were correct.

The man jumped down to where Diabel was. In the process of this, he was hit by a rock, causing several people to laugh including Kei, the person that threw it. "Who did that!" the man shouted. Kei raised his hand, Kirito tried to pull his arm down but it was too late. "Get down here!" the man continued to shout.

Kei stood up and slowly walked down to where both the stranger and Diabel were. "Hello," he said, "I'm Kei. I was a beta tester," When he said this. The stranger grew a look of disgust on his face, but Kei continued, "I know why you're were, and I'll tell you what I told every other asshole who thinks the beta testers: you can have my money and my items, but you're gonna have to take them fair in square,"

"Well that's no fair," said the stranger said, "you've had more experience in this game. You'd win,"

"It sounds like you're scared," Kei retorted, "If you want my items you need to take they fairly. If you don't it's stealing, and the last person I caught stealing shattered into a million pieces," Kei said the last part just loud enough for the stranger to hear, and after hearing it, the stranger's look of disgust turned to fear, he turned and then started walking away, "And by the way," Kei said, "If anyone needed help, they could have asked. There was a guide book for free in the store," and then Kei returned to his seat. After that skirmish, Diabel explained their tactic for fighting the boss and everyone left.

The nest morning, Diabel lead everyone to the boss room. Kirito, Kei, and a red-haired girl they met the night before at a pre-boss fight party. "What is with my brother and red-heads?" Kei thought to himself. Kei walked several paces behind his brother and the girl, "What was her name again?" he continued his thought, "Asuna?" Realizing he was being a moron, he checked the top, left-hand corner of his screen, and saw that he was right.

Once they got to the boss room, Diabel gave a rally speech and everyone went into the boss room and began to fight, which went on for several minutes until everyone finally got down to the last section of its last health bar. The boss threw away his axe and shield and pulled out a long blade with a V-shaped indent at the top. Diabel charged at the boss, "Diabel!" Kirito shouted, "Look out! That's not the weapon it's supposed to be!" But it was too late, Diabel was hit with the blade and sent flying to the back of the raid group.

Kirito ran to Diabel and offered him a health potion, but he refused. They went on to have a talk that felt like it took five minutes, and then Diabel proceeded to shatter into a million pieces. Kirito looked a little sad and then asked Kei and Asuna to help him defeat the boss, the three ran towards the boss and started striking. In an odd event, both Kirito and Kei hit him at the exact same time, so exact that the game couldn't differentiate who hit the boss first. Both of them were given a rare drop for getting the "final hit" on the boss; however, the game, unprepared for two final hits, gave them both unique versions of the item, Kirito receiving a black trench coat and Kei getting a white one.

"YOU LET HIM DIE!" shouted a familiar voice from the group.

Kei sighed and said, "No, Kibao, he didn't let him die. Diabel actively refused the potion," but Kibao was to gone to listen to reason, "You could have saved him!" he shouted, "You we're beta testers! Why didn't you warn him!?" He charged at Kirito, believing he was to blame for Diabel's death, and not the recently defeated boss.

Before he could slash at Kirito, Kibao felt something go through his chest. He looked down and saw Kei, in his new white coat, holding a sword, the blade of which was buried in his torso, "I knew you were an asshole," said Kei, "but attacking an innocent person is too far," and with that Kibao shattered into countless shards of light. Kei ran to the door at the back of the boss room and on towards the next floor.

As everyone ran after Kei, Kirito noticed a piece of paper in front of him. It was a note from Kei that said:

 _Dear Kazuto,_

 _I'm fairly certain that you're shocked by the events you just witnessed, so let me clarify what's going on. I've realized that, in this game, there needs to be someone protecting the innocent at all costs. Honestly, I didn't think that person would be me, but it is. I'm sure I'll see you again, and hopefully we both survive the death trap that we released onto the world._

 _You're Brother,_

 _Keigo_

 _PS: Be sure to keep that girl around (or at least alive), she's a keeper._


	3. On The Run

Chapter 3: On the Run

"Come on, please?" asked Kada.

"I'm not joining you're guild," responded Kei. A thought occurred to him as he continued, "But you know what? I know a guy who'll be perfect for you guys, and… he doesn't already belong to a guild," Kei gave the Moonlit Black Cats his brother's in-game information, and the guild of five left him alone. Just in time too, a moment later and the Holy Dragon Alliance would have broken the, somehow unnoticed, illusion that Kei was what could be described as: 'A crazed sociopath, on his own personal crusade to rid SAO of evil.' Seriously, that was, word for word, in an article posted about him, with his picture. How on earth did the Black Cats not recognize him? He had no fucking clue.

But back to the matter at hand, Kei was now surrounded by members of the Holy Dragon Alliance. Luckily he was faster than them and managed to get to the teleport pad before they could capture him; unfortunately, he teleported to the front lines, a place that he was unwelcomed to after what happened with the floor one boss. He was greeted to spears, swords, and, undoubtedly, a few bows pointed at him. Given his current string of luck, Kei was unsurprised by his lack of teleport crystals. He was taken and placed in the floor's jail.

"What floor is this?" he asked, losing track of where the front lines are from time to time.

"Floor 27," said a familiar voice. Kei turned and saw a girl dressed in white and red, with long red hair. "Asuna?" he asked, "Asuna, how are you doing? What have you and my little brother been up to lately?" The girl was confused by how cheery the murderer was, given his situation, "Aren't you twins?" she asked.

"I'm older by five minutes," he replied, "Where is he by the way?"

"Kirito hasn't been on the front lines for weeks," Asuna said bluntly.

"Oh yea, I should have known that, I just checked on him and my friends list told me he was on floor 11," replied Kei, still being lead off, but not putting up any fight.

*Later*

"What are you in for?" asked the man in Kei's cell.

"Murder," he responded. This worried the stranger, who was imprisoned on steeling some weapons from a shop keeper, "Don't worry," continued Kei, "I'll be out soon,"

"How?" asked the man, "They took all your weapons when you came in,"

"But they didn't take my herbs," Kei responded, "Funny enough, SAO enables you to make any compound from the real world, with in-game items," Kei was now pulling out a few different plats from his inventory, "So if I were to, for example, know how to make gunpowder out of a few, difficult to find, plants, and then light it…" Kei trailed off.

"You're going to blow up the cell?" said the other prisoner, now whispering, hoping they wouldn't get caught in the act. After the mixture was finished, a quick spark from Kei ignited it, destroying the walls. "Holy shit, that worked," Kei said, expecting the wall to still be there.


	4. Titan's Hand

Chapter 4: Titan's Hand

Kei was currently overhearing an argument between a girl named Silica and another named Rosalia. To be quite honest, he thought Rosalia was a bit of a bitch, but that wasn't the reason he was following her. He was following her because she was the leader of a guild named Titan's Hand, which was notorious for robbing innocent people clean, with the occasional kill. To be fair, Kei's guild, White Crusade, was technically a murder guild, but they made sure to only kill people who actually did something wrong, like Titan's Hand for example.

From the looks of thing, Silica was leaving their party, "Seriously?" Kei thought to himself, "She's going to get herself killed," everything in his mind told him to stick to Rosalia, he might not get another chance at her, but there was one tiny sliver of consciousness, in the back of his mind, telling him to save this Silica girl. "For fuck's sake," he whispered to himself, "Kazuto is would kill me if he found out I let her get herself killed,"

Several hours later, Kei found himself still hidden making sure Silica was safe; however, she was not, she was being attacked by apes. Kei was about to intervene, when he saw Kirito make quick work of all three; however, it was a little too late because the girl's pet familiar had died just a second earlier.

Something was off about this scene though. Where were the Black Cats that he had sent his way? He listened to their conversation for a little while, when he heard Kirito say something rather odd, "You remind me of my sister,"

"No she doesn't," he said plainly, finally coming out of the shadows. He was greeted by his brother's sword being swung at him. He quickly parried while saying, "What the hell was that for?"

"You know what you did!" Kirito shouted, "What are you trying to do, recruit this girl for your crusade?"

Kei stopped, "Is that how lowly you think of me?" he said.

"You're a murderer," Kirito replied.

"You know damn well that I'm doing the right thing," Kei argued, "But that's not the point. I wanted to make sure she got back to town safe," After Kei said this, two different reactions occurred. The first was from Silica, who immediately turned bright red as she remembered all of the things she was talking to herself about 'in private'. The second was from Kirito, who seemed was incredibly shocked that his brother still had any semblance of humanity left in him. He lowered his sword and walked with the both of them as they went back into town. With a quick armor replacement, Kei got rid of his standard white cloak and armor so he could blend in with the rest of the town.

The three spent the night catching up on the past few months. Kei found out that the reason the Midnight Black Cats weren't with Kirito was because they had all died on a dungeon expedition, come to think of it, they really only talked about what Kirito was up to. Kei's life was off limits, given that most of his time in SAO was spent on what others, and eventually him, deemed a crusade. The three eventually found an inn and stayed the night; Kei and Kirito agreed to help Silica find a numa flower to help revive her pet, Pina.

The next morning they were off, spending all day going through the dungeon on floor 47. As they were on their way back to the town, after acquiring the flower, Kirito noticed that Kei wasn't with them anymore. Then he noticed someone behind a tree, "Alright," he said, "you can come out now," He wasn't actually expect Rosalia to come out from behind it, but she was a plus. He was supposed to capture her anyways. An arrow landed next to Kirito's feet, surprisingly, Kirito was the only one that noticed it, there was a note attached. It simply read: "Make sure Silica has her eyes closed,"

"No, don't do this Kei," he said.

"Who are you talking to?" asked Rosalia and Silica, almost at the same time, "Whoever it is, it doesn't matter," Rosalia continued, "Both of you are done for. Come on out boys," but no one did, "I said: 'Come on out boys'," Then there was the sound of six objects shattering, it was safe to say why Rosalia's men weren't coming out of hiding. The red-head turned around to find a strange figure, in a white cloak, wearing a strange mask with glowing silver eyes. The stranger spoke, "Rosalia, of Titan's Hand, you have committed crimes against the people of Aincrad. Prepare to face the consequences,"

"Stop this!" Kirito shouted. But the figure started to charge at Rosalia. Kirito quickly grabbed Silica saying, "Silica, close your eyes," the first of the two actions causing the girl to turn red.

Rosalia pointed her spear at the approaching figure, but when it made contact it was split in half. The figure made a series of precision slashes, finally creating a loud boom. The two stood still for a moment, until Rosalia shattered just like her henchmen. After that, the figure disappeared. The two remaining people went back to town, to revive Pina.

Serval hours later, after Pina had been revived and Silica had left, Kirito went and found Kei. "What the hell was that?!"Kirito shouted.

"What do you mean?" Kei replied, not knowing which part of the day's events he meant.

"You know damn well what I mean," Kirito said angrily.

"Well let's start at the beginning," Kei said, a bit jokingly, "The get-up is fairly standard for members. The little monologue bit wasn't my idea, but some of the higher ups thought it would further the whole 'righteous cause' thing. As for the actual fight, when I'm not off killing people, I'm off training," it was then that Kirito noticed the bags under his brother's eyes.

"When was the last time you slept?" Kirito asked.

"Hmm," Kei thought to himself, "I sleep a little bit every night, but only one or two hours, I guess it's a good thing you can't die from sleep deprivation in this game,"

"You've got to be kidding me," Kirito said.

"Whelp," Kei said, as he started to get up, "I need to go report what happened today. Remember, the door's always open if you want to join,"

"I think I'll pass on that," said Kirito, "The last guild you recommended I join got slaughtered,"

Kei paused for a second, "Fair enough," he said, and left Kirito on his own.


	5. Murder in a Safe Zone

Chapter 5: Murder in a Safe Zone

Most of SAO had grown to at least tolerate the White Crusade, but Kei, being the leader of the 'Murder Guild', was the only one aloud to go to briefing missions on boss fights. And even still, most people weren't truly comfortable unless he was standing outside the room. "We'll lure it to the village," he heard Asuna say, "It'll go after the NPCs, that's when we'll attack,"

"That's a shitty plan," said Kei, from outside the cave where the briefing was being held.

"And why is that?" said an unrecognizable voice.

"There are more than just NPCs in the village," argued Kei, "the boss will start attacking some of the weaker players," When other players heard this, a ripple of murmurs ran through the crowd, as many of the players present started to realize that he had a point. A while later, the plan for the boss was set and everyone left.

Kei found himself snooping around, as usual. Currently, he found himself in a tree, sitting over his brother, making sure he was safe during his nap, when, all of the sudden, Asuna walked up out of nowhere; "What the hell are you doing?" she said.

"I can't be expected to do work on a day like today," Kirito responded, evoking a silent laugh from his brother.

A string of conversation ensued, eventually leading to Asuna taking a nap next to Kirito. "How does he do that?" Kei thought to himself, "He walks up to a girl, or vice versa, and within second, they're putty in his hands," For the next few hours he sat in his tree as he and Kirito made sure Asuna was safe. Within the past few weeks, there have been a number of killings resulting a sleeping player being forced to accept a duel request and then mercilessly beaten until they run out of health.

Eventually, Asuna woke up. She reached for her sword, she stood there for a second, released her sword and said, "You get one meal,"

"What?" Kirito asked confused.

"All you can eat, on me," Asuna continued, "You didn't have to watch me, so this is my way of repaying you,"

Kei seized this opportunity to come out of hiding, saying, "Hey, I helped to," Under normal circumstances the other two would have been scared, but he ended up falling on his face as he came down from the tree. This caused the other two players to laugh tremendously.

They sat around and talked for a while, mostly small talk, until Asuna asked, "So what kind of crusade are you guys on?"

Both Kirito and Kei stopped eating there was a short silence… then Kei spoke, "In any MMO, there are people who are always the victims. Getting killed by players or exploited by people that are stronger than them. All we're trying to do is keep them safe,"

"And you couldn't do that by putting criminals in jail?" Asuna replied.

"If they go to jail they'll just get out again. Exhibit A," Kei said, motioning to himself, "And if it makes you feel any better, we're the most innovative guild in this game. Most of the time, they don't suffer,"

Asuna seemed a little irritated at this point, but before they could continue the debate, there was a scream outside. The three ran outside, and found a man, hanging from the bell tower, with a sword in his chest, "I'll go cut him down," Asuna said.

"There's no time," said Kei, pulling out a bow. He shot the arrow, slicing the rope holding the man up. Once the man fell, Kei pulled the sword out of his chest.

The three brought the man, whose name was Caynz, and his friend Yoko. They explained that their guild leader was murdered and they were trying to find who did it. It goes without saying that Kei jumped on this case, Kirito and Asuna went along as well. After further explanation, the only suspect Caynz and Yoko had was another former member of their guild, named Schmitt. Thanks to the White Crusade database, Kei tracked him down in a matter of minutes and arranged for them to meet at their old guild leader's grave.

Once there, Kei made sure to hide behind a tree, and waited for the meeting to get where he needed it to. After Schmitt had whimpered for a bit about Griselda's ghost haunting him, but the fun part came along quickly. Laughing Coffin showed up. Kei dawned his mask, and came out from behind his tree, reciting the stupid speech he was told he had to say, "Laughing Coffin, you have committed crimes against the people of Aincrad. Prepare to face the consequences," The three members looked at each other and laughed, "You think you can defeat us?" One of them said, "You're hopelessly outmatched,"

Kei smiled, and pulled out a small piece of metal. He pointed it at the closest member, and pulled the trigger. There was a loud boom, followed by the one of the members of Laughing Coffin shattering into countless shards of light. It dawned on the remaining two who they were dealing with, this wasn't just some self-righteous jackass; this was a member of White Crusade, a guild, so feared by others, that the mere mentioned of its name sent shivers down even the strongest of players' backs. Kei made quick work of the other two, unloading two more rounds into their backs as they ran in fear, and then kicked Schmitt in the stomach.

"What the hell was that for?" Schmitt asked.

"That's for your guild locking me in a cell," Kei said bluntly, "Your friends think you killed Griselda,"

"Why would I do that?" Schmitt asked.

"How should I know?" replied Kei, "I think you're innocent. In fact, I know who did it. Bring him out!" On que, Kirito and Asuna dragged a man wearing a bowl hat and a black trench coat towards the group, "Ya know," Kei said, "Technically I'm supposed to give this really shitty speech about how you're a shitty person, but I'm sure you heard it from over there. So I'll make this quick," he pointed the gun, execution style, at Grimlock's head and pulled the trigger.


	6. A Guild Blacksmith

Chapter 5.1: A Guild Blacksmith

Kei walked into a cozy little blacksmith shop on the edge of town; he didn't know what floor he was on, and, in all honesty, he stopped caring a long time ago. "Hello?" he said, "Is anyone here?" He heard a loud crashing sound, and a pink-haired girl came in from a door that, Kei supposed, lead to a basement, "Hello," she said, "What can I do for you?"

"Oh, I don't have an order," replied Kei, "More of a request,"

"Shoot," said the girl.

"I was wondering if you'd like to be the chief blacksmith for my guild,"

"What's the catch?" said the girl, "And how do you know about me?"

"No strings attached, there are a few, eh… unique recipes you'll need to learn, but you'll have the best equipment money can buy. As for how I found you: my brother recommended you," it was then that the girl recognized the face in front of her, "You wouldn't happen to be Kirito's brother, would you?"

"How'd you guess? It's the nose isn't it?" Kei said jokingly.

"No. I don't care what your guild's perk package is, I'm not joining a murder guild," the girl interrupted.

"I've always thought that was a harsh term," Kei said, "We're not some terrible group, like Laughing Coffin. We're trying to make Aincrad a safer place,"

"By killing people!" the girl shouted.

Kei sighed, "Yea, that was Asuna's argument as well,"

"You know Asuna?" The girl asked, shocked.

"I'm the leader of White Crusade, of course I know Asuna," Kei said, "She's one of the other people that recommended you. Of course they meant as a personal blacksmith, and not a guild's, but it's almost the same thing,"

"That doesn't change the fact that I'm not joining you," the girl restated.

"Just look at this," Kei said, showing the girl a screenshot of, what could only be described as, a fuck ton of rare metals.

"I'm in," she said, "My name is Liz,"

"I'm Kei,"


	7. Showing the Ropes

Chapter 6: Showing the Ropes

Kei and Liz walked through the forest on floor 40, until they found a cave. They entered and Liz stuck to Kei, who was fighting all of the mobs in the cave; eventually, they got to the back of the cave, and found a metal door. Before either of them could even touch the door, it opened as though it had a mind of its own, and they entered. The heavy, metal, door closed behind Liz as she and Kei as they walked through it. "Welcome to the crusade," Kei said, "The forge is down stairs. You can have your pick of metals, we have no shortage on items,"

"How?" Liz asked.

"Despite many thinking we're horrible people," replied Kei, "some consider us to be heroes, and are willing to sacrifice a fair amount of gold to our cause,"

"So… how did you make the guns?" Liz continued questioning.

"Technically," Kei answered, "you can make anything you want with the blacksmith skill. So we can make parts of the guns and then place them together, the bullets are easy enough to make, the real difficulty is the gunpowder. With the cooking skill, you can make real life substances out of in-game plants, most people use it to make sauces, but we're not most people," As the two entered the forge, Kei threw a book onto the table, "Here's your work space. There's the list of recipes you need to know. Let's move on with the tour,"

Kei lead her back upstairs, and pointed to a board of posters, "Over there is the job board, you don't have to take any because you have an actual job here, but it's still open," the Kei gestured to a door, similar to the one they entered in, "There's the armory, everything you make goes in there. If you need any weapons, just remember to trade out what you have for what you're taking," the tour continued as Kei answered any questions Liz had. He showed her the living quarters, common areas, and the multiple farms they had for everything from xp to the plants they used to make gunpowder.

Once the tour was over, Liz went to work, learning all the new recipes she would need. In all honesty, it was quite amazing that the White Crusade managed to make actual working guns out of a simple exploit in the game's mechanics, and there weren't just some simple flintlock pistols, these were actual, standard-issue, handguns you'd see police officers walking around with.

That night, Liz was still getting used to her new, surprisingly comfortable, bed, and couldn't sleep. So, she decided to take a walk around the base, to try and get a feel for the layout of her new home. As she was passing by the one of the many doors into the cave, she heard several clashes of steel followed by gunshots. Opening the door she found Kei fighting a number of monsters. She moved to go help him, but was stopped by a mysterious arm across her chest. She followed the white-clad arm up to a masked face, "Let him be," said the stranger.

Liz checked her clock and realized it was two in the morning, "Why is he up so late?" she asked.

"He doesn't get much sleep. Some nights he doesn't sleep at all," replied the man, "When he's awake he's either on a mission, furthering the cause of this crusade of his, or training,"

"Why are you out here?" Liz continued with her barrage of questions.

"Some of the higher-ups take shifts, making sure he doesn't get himself killed," said the man.

"Has he ever needed help?"

"No," there was a long pause, the only sound was Kei's sword, slashing through anything that came within range, "I haven't seen you before," the stranger broke the silence, "Are you new?"

"Yea," Liz said shyly, "I'm the new blacksmith,"

"A desk job, fun," joked the man, "I wish I could get one of those. What's your name?"

"Liz," she replied.

"Good to meet you Liz," the stranger said, with a new, cheery tone, "My name's Klein,"

The two sat, watching their boss kill everything in his path. As minutes turned into hours, Liz eventually went inside and fell asleep.

Liz woke up to Kei, sitting in a chair, at the foot of her bed, and was promptly slapped in the face. In all honesty, he could have dodged the blow, or even blocked it, but considering that he'd been watching the pink-haired girl sleep for the past half an hour, he deserved it.

"Good morning sunshine," he greeted her, rubbing the red handprint on his face,

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?" Liz demanded.

"You're woke up late," Kei said, "It's ten in the morning,"

"WHEN THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO BE UP THEN!?"

"Three hours ago," replied Kei.

"YOU WANT ME TO GET UP AT 7AM!?" Liz continued to shout.

"First off," Kei started, now getting angry, "stop shouting at me. I am your boss, you will treat me with respect. Second, I expect everyone to be up at seven, some even get up earlier than that. Third, if you weren't out spying on me with Klein, maybe you would have gotten up sooner," This last sentence took Liz by surprise.

"You knew about that?" Liz said, embarrassed.

"Yes, I knew," replied Kei, "I'm the leader of a glorified assassin guild, it'd be crazy if my detection skill wasn't maxed out. That, and I know everything that goes on in my guild, even if others don't know about it. Anyways, you've got basic training today,"

"Why do I need basic training?" Asked Liz.

"Everyone's required to have it. You never know when you'll get picked to go on a boss raid," Kei explained.

"Wait," Lis interrupted, "I might have to go on a boss raid,"

"Yes," Kei said, "The Crusade is a major force when it comes to boss fights, and, as such, requires it members to level up at certain intervals. Since you have a job that isn't going out a brutally murdering people, I'm sure an exception or two can be made,"


	8. A Bloody Combo

Chapter 7: A Bloody Combo

Kei was walking significantly slower than his dungeon party, so by the time he had caught up with them, they were swarmed with what looked like 25 people in matching, dark green armor, "The Liberation Army?" he said to himself, smiling. He pulled out his pistol, and fired a single shot into the air. This got the group's attention, "What seems to be the problem, general?" he shouted to the group.

A man spoke, "We have requested that this group give us their map of the dungeon to further the cause of the Aincrad Liberation Army,"

"So let me get this straight," said Kei, "You see someone who is, clearly, a part of the White Crusade. And tell him that you want to steel someone's hard-earned map,"

"It's fine Kei," said a familiar voice from behind the group, "I was going to go public with the map when we got done here,"

"It's good to see you again Kirito," said Kei, with a renewed sense of happiness, "How long has it been? Three months?"

"Yea," responded Kirito, "I see you recruited Klein,"

"I thought it was the least I could do, after ditching him in the Town of Beginnings," as he said this, Kei noticed that the Liberation Army was going towards the boss room in the dungeon, "What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

The commander of the unit spoke again, "We are going to clear this floor,"

"You're going to get yourself killed," Kei said, annoyed.

After the Liberation Army had gone, Kei caught up with Kirito and Asuna. He was surprised when he found out that they actually got together, laughed and told Asuna that, before he left his brother, told Kirito that he should date her, followed by Kirito punching him in the gut. Several minutes later, everyone realized that the Liberation Army hadn't come back yet. As they went to check on them they heard a loud scream, causing their entire group to start running.

Once they got to the boss room, they witnessed as what little o the Liberation Army was slowly being decimated. Upon entering, a man was flung towards them by the boss's tail. After a moment, the man shattered.

"Kirito," said Kei, now incredibly angry for reasons even he didn't understand, "I'd get that special skill of yours ready," the younger of the two looked over and noticed something strange, Kei's eyes had turned an unsettling shade of red. The he charged at the boss, two swords in his hands, and slashed at the beast. The other nine in his group were amazed as he perfectly executed each stroke of his blades, while also countering everything the boss threw at him. As Kirito was about to help him, Kei jabbed one of his swords into the beast's foot, blocked another blow from the boss, pulled out the pistol on his waste, and shot the boss in the head, finishing off the last sliver of its health.

"What the hell was that?!" Klein shouted.

"It's a special skill," replied Kei, smiling.

"How'd you get it?" asked Kirito.

"One time quest," explained Kei, "kill an NPC who had the skill, and you get it. How'd you get it, little brother?"

"No idea," answered Kirito.

"What was up with your eyes?" asked Asuna, out of nowhere.

"Ah, that," said Kei, "I've been told it's a unique skill; only one person can have it at a time, and that person has to meet some very specific requirements. That one's called 'Blood Lust', it increases my speed and damage,"

The next day, Kei talked to Agil, one of Kirito's friends, "If this were anyone else," said the tall, dark-skinned man, "I'd think it was a joke, but, from what I've heard about you, a 60 hit combo, with a two different skills that people have never seen before, doesn't sound too far out of reach for you," Kei didn't say anything.

"Your brother said you talked more than this," Agil tried to keep conversation.

"From what I hear," Kei finally spoke, "you're prone to ripping people off. It's not something I'd consider worth killing you over, but some of your clients think otherwise," when he heard this, Agil became scared.

"You mean, someone's asked you to kill me?" asked Agil, in a shaky voice.

"It's nothing special," explained Kei, "Most of our missions come from requests, but we like to look into all of them. We'd get a worse reputation if we just killed anyone we were told had done something wrong. And like I said, what you're doing is wrong, but it's not worth killing you over," And with that, Kei exited the room.


	9. Immovable Object vs Unstoppable Force

Chapter 8: Immovable Object vs. Unstoppable Force

"Hello Commander," Kei said to the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, "I'm here to talk to you about my brother Kirito,"

"Ah, yes," said Commander Heathcliff, "He is one of the newest members of my Guild,"

"You are going to allow my brother and Asuna to leave your guild, or else," threatened the black haired boy.

"What could you possibly do to me?" asked the Commander, "I know you're not going to kill me. It would undermine everything you've worked for to end someone's life in cold blood,"

"How about if I accused you of cheating, not only in the fight against my brother, but in multiple boss fights as well,"

"You have no way of proving this," Heathcliff said, his expression changing from amused to serious.

Kei moved in close and whispered so that only the Commander could hear, "Well if that doesn't scare you then I don't know what will… Mr. Kayaba," hearing this, the Commander's face shifted from serious to scared.

"I will make you the same deal I made your brother," said the Commander, "We'll have a duel. If you win then I'll let Kirito and Asuna go. But when I win, you will not only join the Knights of the Blood Oath, but you will also stop this crusade of yours,"

Kei paused for a moment, knowing that if he did this there was no guarantee that he would get his brother back anyway, "Deal," he finally spoke.

The next day, the crowd was roaring. The two combatants stood at a distance from each other, waiting for the clock to count down and begin the duel. After what felt like minutes, the clock finally hit zero. Kei's eyes shifted to their unsettling red and he charged at the Commander. Heathcliff raised his shield to block Kei's oncoming strike, but his blade cut through the metal like butter and severed the Commander's forearm. After that, the two traded blows back and forth, but only Kei's seemed to be making contact. In no time, Heathcliff's health was dwindling while Kei's was still full. The Commander finally managed to make his sword hit the black haired boy, but it was too late, he neglected to notice the small pistol aimed at his leg and only realized his mistake once he heard the shot. With that, the Commander's health dropped into the yellow and the match was over.


	10. Family

Chapter 9: Family

"Alright," Kei said to his brother and Asuna as they finished the tour of the White Crusade base, "I already have your first mission ready," hearing this, the couple sighed, "You need to take a break,"

"What?" Asuna asked.

"As your leader," Kei said, trying to be as clear as possible, "I am giving the both of you a direct order to take a break from the front lines,"

"Wait," Asuna said, "You risked everything you've worked for over the past two years, just so you can get your brother and some girl you barely know some vacation time?"

"Look," Kei said, easily annoyed due to his lack of sleep, "if you don't want the vacation time you so desperately wanted that you were willing to leave your position as second in command of the Knights of the Blood Oath then fine. I can put you on screening duty, we have even more requests because of my fight with Commander Heathcliff. But I'm fairly certain that both of you would much rather have a nice cabin in the middle of floor 22. And let me tell you, after some time on screening duty you're going to start wanting to kill people," the couple took the time off.

Several weeks later, Kei went to visit his brother and now in-game sister-in-law. He was told that he needed to take a vacation, so he was in something more casual than. Something about how being able to count how long you slept in a single week, on one hand, was bad for the human psyche, coupled with the literal countless lives he'd taken in the past two years.

The black haired assassin walked towards the cabin he had given to the newlyweds, and knocked on the door, he had a key but he wanted to seem courteous. But something unexpected happened, a small, black-haired, girl answered the door, she stared at Kei for a moment and then spoke to someone beyond the threshold of the door, "Mama," she said, "someone that looks like Papa is here,"

For a moment, Kei thought that he had gone to the wrong cabin in the middle of the forest, until what the girl said registered in his mind, 'someone that looks like Papa'. Kei had met with or at least seen every player who was currently living in Aincrad, and none of them had looked anything like him or his brother. His thoughts were confirmed when Asuna walked up behind the girl.

"What do you want?" she said, a tone of disgust in her voice.

"I was told to take a vacation, so I came to visit you and Kirito," replied Kei, still offset by the sight by the little girl, who was apparently his niece, standing in front of him, "But it seems as though you have plenty of company," he turned and started to walk off, but was stopped by Kirito who had come out of nowhere.

"Come on dear," the younger of the two brothers spoke to his wife, "It's about time Yui met her Uncle Kei," and the assassin was welcomed into the house.


	11. Home

Chapter 10: Home

"So what brings you around here?" Kirito asked his twin.

"Command said I needed a vacation," explained the slightly elder of the two, "I thought I'd see what you too were up to," he glanced at Yui, "And it seems that you two have been busy,"

Kirito turned bright red as he tried to explain, "I-It's not like that," he stammered, "We just found her in the woods a few days ago. We were going to take her to the Town of Beginnings to look for her parents,"

"How noble of you," Kei said to him.

Asuna interrupted their conversation, "She's lucky _you_ didn't find her, you'd have had a sword in her hand before you got back to the hole-in-the-ground you call a base,"

This hit Kei in a rather soft spot. One, because he made the executive decision to not let children try to help the Crusade. And two, because he donated food and money to every orphanage in the Town of Beginnings, to make sure they were all working as they should, but Kei laughed at the comment none the less, passing it off as a joke, "That was a good one Asuna," then returned to the conversation with his brother, "I could help with the search for her parents," he said, "I know a few of the orphanage owners in town, they might be able to help,"

"That would be-" Kirito began, but was interrupted by his wife, "You're not coming with us,"

"I want Uncle Kei to come with us," Yui said, "I want him to help," hearing this, Asuna rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, "Fine," she said, "You can come, but only because Yui wants you to," the redhead leaned into Kei ear and whispered, "But if you so much as touch Yui, I will see to it that you are skinned alive and then I'll pour salt on you,"

"That's fair," replied Kei.

A few minutes of travel and teleportation and they were in the heart of the Town of Beginnings, "Alright Yui," Kei told his adopted niece in an uncharacteristically happy tone, "be sure to look for anybody familiar. We want to get you back to your family," but before they could get any real searching done, the group heard a scream. They ran to find a brown-haired girl being harassed by men in green armor, "Please," she said, "I already paid the taxes for this month,"

"The taxes went up," one of the men said, "And since it doesn't seem like you have any money, you're going to have to give us your items… including your armor," it was then that Kei noticed the girl was guarding three children behind her.

"No," she said, pulling out a sword from her inventory, "And don't come any closer, I'll-I'll fight you," the threat was greeted with a laugh, and Kei noticed the girl's shaking knees. He stepped between the two groups, "Excuse me," he said, "It seems there's a bit of conflict here. Perhaps I could fix that, how much does this woman own the Liberation Army?"

"You don't have any business here," one of them retorted.

"Oh but I do," he explained, "I am actually to sole owner of the orphanage she runs, so, naturally, anything she owes you I can pay for,"

"She owes us more than you could probably pay," the man argued.

Kei opened his inventory and dropped 2000 gold onto the ground, "Look, that's probably enough for the next few months, so you can go and shove it up your ass,"

"Hey," the girl interrupted, "watch your language around the children,"

"Look, ma'am," he reasoned, "I'd suggest you not try to piss off the man trying to save you from stripping in front of the kids you're trying to help raise," that seemed to shut her up.

Later, the group returned to the girl's orphanage and questioned her about Yui. Unfortunately, they came up empty handed. Eventually, they ran into a blonde girl who was looking for Kirito and Asuna. She explained that, Thinker, one of the leaders of the Liberation Army was meeting to help end the corruption in its ranks, Kei thought the entire idea was stupid but kept his mouth shut. He even kept his silence when the woman mentioned that the meeting was taking place in a secret dungeon underneath the Town of Beginnings.

The woman lead the twins, Asuna, and Yui, towards where the meeting would have taken place; surprisingly, they encountered very little resistance until they were in the final stretch of their journey. As they entered the corridor leading to the safe zone where the meeting was supposed to have taken place. The blonde ran towards Thinker, not noticing a shadow hidden behind one of the columns. Kirito managed to tackle her to the ground before she could even notice the giant scythe aiming to remove her head from its shoulders, "Asuna get Yui to safety," he shouted. The monster that had revealed itself appeared to be a giant Grim Reaper, and it was moving for another blow at Kirito and the blonde woman. As it swung, Kei rushed in to block the strike, "I'd recommend you two get to safety as well," he told them.

Kirito tried to argue, "I'm not leaving you-"

"Get to safety, now," Kei interrupted, "That's an order," as much as Kirito didn't like it, he knew that disregarding Kei would have serious consequences, regardless of whether or not he was his brother, so he went to the safe room.

Kei drew his swords and charged at the reaper. He slashed at delivering countless strikes to the monster. But every time there was a break in his combo, it's health would reset to full. Kei paused and put away his blades. Instead, he reached into a pack on the back of his belt and withdrew a spherical object. He ran up the walls of the enormous hall they were in and threw the orb into the mouth of the reaper. After a short delay, the beast's head exploded, but, as the dust settled, the beast was shown, completely unfazed by the event. Kei opened his menus, went to his friends list, and sent a verbal message to a certain pink-haired blacksmith turned weapons technician, "Hey, Liz," he said, "the grenades aren't strong enough. I'm gonna need that fixed by next week," when he had finished he hit send.

"Yui, get back here!" Asuna shouted. Kei looked away from his fight to see the little girl walking out of the safe zone. He darted toward her as the monster noticed the girl as well. The white-cloaked boy reached her just in time, wrapping her in his arms as he took a direct hit from the reaper's scythe.

The blow was far more than expected even with light armor on. Kei's health now dwindling, he resorted to something he'd hoped he'd never need to use, "System Command: delete all non-player entities within 50 meters, Exception: Yui," after a moment, the system recognized his command and the monster vanished.

Kirito and Asuna ran out of the safe room towards their injured leader, and, surprisingly, they both greeted him with a hug, "Thank you for saving Yui," Asuna said, tears welling in her eyes, "Thank you so much,"

Everyone but Kei left the dungeon. He stayed behind and logged into the large black box that was an admin console, starting a new file to be shared with Kirito, Asuna, and his nervegears. Kei entitled the file: Yui Backup and set it to refresh its memory every few hours. He knew Yui wouldn't exit the virtual world so he wanted to make sure that her new family could see her once they got out of this hellhole.


	12. The End For Now

Chapter 11: The End... For Now

The rest of "The SAO Incident" went relatively smoothly. Kei and the White Crusade eliminated a large portion of the thieves and player killers in the game and scared the rest into hiding. The only real incident was when Kei convinced Yui to admit that she was just a program made from the SAO server, the matter was made worse by Kei admitting he knew almost from the very beginning, but the couple eventually got over it when he revealed his backup file that could be transferred between games. In the end, SAO ended with about 4,500 people dead, Kei's crusade responsible for about one thousand of those and Kei himself responsible for 283, a number only Kei knew.

When the death game was finally over, Kei was placed in jail for the murder of so many people and also taking responsibility for the actions of his entire guild. Kei was found guilty of his crimes, but, miraculously, received minimal sentencing on the grounds that they were all in consideration for the safety of the people.


	13. A New Game

Chapter 12: A New Game

"So how's everything going with Asuna," Keigo Kirigaya asked his twin, happy to have a visitor while in jail.

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about," the slightly younger of the two replied, "She hasn't woken up, along with a few hundred other people. I need your help to get her back,"

"Can't you do it by yourself?" Keigo asked.

"No," Kazuto replied, "I'm scared Kei. I can't go into another VR game, not alone,"

The elder saw the fear in his brother's eyes he knew he had to do something to help, "I'll see what I can do. I'll be out of this place in a few days, I can come back to the house and me, you, and Sugu can get Asuna back," Kazuto thought that sounded strange given that their cousin didn't play VR games, but he trusted Kei could get her to help.

"Hey, how are you sleeping?" Kazuto asked before he left his brother.

"Well I've managed to move to double digits for the week," Kei replied, "so I guess it's improving. The doctors here have me on some kind of medication to help but it's not doing much,"


End file.
